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Pirate captains are the ones who are at the very head of a pirate crew. They also tend to be the mightiest members of their crew, and most of them tend to exploit their strength even over their own subordinates to ensure loyalty. However, anyone can attain the rank of captaincy out of pure leadership, as a founding member or voted by other crew members. All major decisions are made by them, though they may be usually advised and influenced by other members.

Cricket's crew leaves him due to conflict of interests.

Although a captain may be the highest authority of the crew, there are situations where they are betrayed, overthrown and even killed in mutinies. Possible reasons include the captain acting selfishly at the expense of the crew (Kuro[2] and John[3]), conflict of personal interests (Montblanc Cricket[4] and Breed[5]) or when the subordinates try to flee in cowardice after their tyrannical captain is defeated (Demaro Black[6] and Hody Jones[7]). Upon confirming Monkey D. Luffy utilizing Haoshoku Haki, Roronoa Zoro claims that had Luffy not been able to perform at least this much, the crew would have to find a new captain, showing that at least he has high standards for someone to be his captain.[8]

If multiple pirate crews were to form an alliance, the captains of the allied crews share equal standings, becoming co-leaders of the alliance. They thus have limited control over their allied crew's men, and when it comes to important decisions, their opinion must be included.

In a fleet, the captain that is in charge of it is referred to as "admiral" (or commodore in English dubs), while the captains of the subservient crews are known as 'division commanders'. When called upon by their admiral, the division commanders must follow their orders. However, when not under direct orders of the admiral, the captain is free to act as they please, provided their actions don't harm or cause trouble for the fleet.

In real life, captains of pirate crews were often elected to their posts by a ship's crew. Even if they owned the ship, if the captain fell out of favor with their crew, another could be elected without notice. Sometimes, inadequate captains were even murdered. Also, cases occur when a first mate would kill the captain to take over.